FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT BJORN BORG - PAGE 2

July 16 (Reuters) - Martina Hingis, fresh off her induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, will end a nearly six-year retirement to play doubles at next week's Southern California Open, the WTA said on Tuesday. Hingis, a winner of five grand slam singles titles, will partner with Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova at the July 27-Aug. 4 tournament in Carlsbad, California. "I am very much looking forward to making a return to competitive play at the Southern California Open," the Swiss former world number one said in a statement on the WTA website.

They walked onto the court and, with just a little imagination, there wasn`t much difference from 13 years ago. Roscoe Tanner, the bangs and the booming left-handed serve. Bjorn Borg, the hair, the headband and the topspin intact (well, some of the topspin). "He looked so much the same it was scary," said Chicago fan Chris Pratt of the 36-year-old Swede. "But they were in their prime then." That was 1979, when Borg beat Tanner at Wimbledon 6-4 in the fifth. It was the first live U.S. television broadcast of the event and Borg's fourth straight Wimbledon.

The senior golf tour has thrived because, among other things, it has been a natural transition. Fifty-five-year-olds in red pants blend into their sport just fine-and play pretty well, too. But will anyone pay to see older athletes in shorts? That's the question facing senior tennis. The answer, if Bjorn Borg is in the field is, apparently, "yes." Borg, 36, headlines a group of eight senior players in the Advanta Tour of Chicago tournament beginning Friday night at the SCORE Tennis Center in Countryside.

All of a sudden it was as if Jimmy Connors decided, OK, let's get this thing over with now. The 42-year-old legs, playing a "Legends" match against Bjorn Borg, put away a couple of overheads, then passed and lobbed Borg to end the first of six round-robin sets in a long and somewhat desultory night of tennis Friday at the Rosemont Horizon. Perhaps the players' emotions were simply spent after a difficult week following the death Sunday of Vitas Gerulaitis, to whom three of the four participants were especially close.

Believe it or not, football isn`t the only game in town . . . Renewed: The blond hair that once brushed his shoulders is cut much shorter now, and although one would assume that the new style makes him look older, the opposite is true. Bjorn Borg looks younger now than when he was a tennis superstar, and perhaps that's because he's happier away from the circuit. When we asked him to name his most memorable moment in tennis, he laughed deeply and cited two: "When I started playing and when I stopped."

Homeless: True to their nickname, the Ramblers of Loyola have played in five different arenas since 1980. Now their rambling days may be over. We hear that Loyola's president, Rev. Raymond Baumhart, has on his desk a contract that would put coach Gene Sullivan and his Ramblers in the International Amphitheatre for the next five seasons. The deal would take effect this fall. The new home is . . . . . . the city's oldest exposition hall. It housed big trade shows before McCormick Place was built and was also the site of huge political gatherings, among them the notorious Democratic National Convention of 1968.

When Bjorn Borg was in town in the 1970s to play in a tennis tournament, he appeared at a clinic for juniors. Fourteen-year-old Tom Wangelin was one of the kids who got to hit with Borg, then the No. 1 player in the world. "One on one, that was something," Wangelin says. "I remember Borg gave me some technical tip, but it didn`t really register because I was so excited to be there. "When you watch them play, you almost think their level is unattainable when you`re that age."

Eight only children who became celebrities and are thus assured that, so long as they stay out of jail, they can have their own room anytime they want it: 1. Dick Cavett 2. Ringo Starr 3. Bjorn Borg 4. Suzanne Pleshette 5. Cole Porter 6. Don Rickles 7. Peter Falk 8. Robert DeNiro